Monday, September 19, 2011

This past weekend was Alice's birthday party. And man, what a party! We had over 30 people at our house for dinner and a movie (That might sound like a date to you, but how many dates involve inflatable games? Okay, let's not go there...)

Thanks to all who came to be with Alice for her big day. One week later and she still thinks she gets special privileges because she's the birthday girl.

I'm sorry if we didn't thank you personally for your presence and pressies, but you all made it a wonderful success.

Unfortunately for Estelle, we've overdosed on party planning so she gets a Happy Meal and a Vachon cake for her birthday in November... (Just kidding)

Kiddie table

Big kids with small bums can share chairs

La baleine bleue.

So proud of my first eggless and dairy-free cake for our allergic wombats.

After many weeks of anticipation, our baby girl is five years old! It's true, she was singing "j'ai cinq ans et j'suis finissant!" at her daycare graduation. Also last week one of her classmates couldn't understand how Alice had been allowed into kindergarten when she was still 4.

September 15th fell on a Thursday this year, so Alice went to school after a crepe breakfast, got to eat a hot school dinner ("Midi-Bouffe") and had cake and pressies with paté chinois for dinner.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

I've been wanting to bike the 12km to work, but it was a little too far. So I did what any respectable person would do, I cheated. More specifically I ordered an electric hub motor and battery directly from China and installed it on my bike. Overall a fun project, and the bike is a blast to ride.

Twist throttle on the right, cruise control control on the left and handlebar bag in the centre. I took apart an old speaker set I had and rebuilt it into a the bag. The clear patch allows me to control my IPhone through it.

Wiring that I had to shorten and put into this nifty box.

The motor and controller is inside the hub. Note the shape of the axles which allows for it to torque against the drop-outs. Pretty nifty idea.

The batter gives me enough juice to go about 25 without pedalling at about 37km/h (45km/h if I pedal).